Scotty Bauhs claims second straight Stanford Invitational title Wildcat men 4th, women 6th to beat many D1 programs

Scott Bauhs powers away from Aaron Rono coming down the home stretch

By Gary Towne, Chico State head coach Saturday, October 20, 2007 Palo Alto, California- For years now the Chico State cross country teams have used the Stanford Invitational to weigh themselves against the best competition that a team can find on the West Coast, and for years now the Wildcats have enjoyed success on this stage, oftentimes defeating larger Division I schools. This year's Stanford Invitational was no different as both Chico State squads soundly defeated a host of solid Division I teams from across the country. For the women the Stanford meet was a remarkable improvement over their season opener just two weeks prior in San Diego. The Wildcat ladies turned the tables on UCSB, Loyola Marymount, and Long Beach, who had all defeated them soundly in San Diego. I'll highlight the team improvements below, but first we'll talk about the individual races. Men's 8,000m: The men's 8k for the 'Cats was really two races in one. At the front you had Scotty Bauhs trying to repeat as individual champion and in the pack you had a Chico squad trying to battle their way through the crowded field to help the team finish as high as possible. From the gun the pace was quick, and just as expected Azusa's Aron Rono the defending NAIA individual champion who had just broken Meb Keflezighi's course record at the Aztec Invite two

weeks ago assumed the lead and created an honest tempo. The plan for Bauhs was to sit in the lead pack and to shorten the race a bit before pursuing the standout Kenyan who would most likely be out from the front. This is exactly how things unfolded for Scott who ran in 4th place through 2 miles with Arkansas #1 Scott McPherson (13:49 5k PR) and two other athletes. During the third mile Bauhs broke free from the chase pack and set off in pursuit of Rono who had forged a 15 second lead over his closest pursuers. Little by little Bauhs whittled away at the lead and by the 4 mile mark the gap had been cut in half. The Chico men's team collectively got out to a conservative start. The past several years the 'Cats have gotten out very aggressively at Stanford and to some degree have faded in the later stages. With the temps in the 80 degree range at the start the Chico men placed themselves among the middle of a very large (235 runners) field. The main exception to this plan was the somewhat aggressive start by returning All American Brendan Scanlon who rolled through the mile inside the Top-30 overall. Angel Marquez, Beau Rogers and Jordan Fairley and Manny Mejia ran outside the top 100 at the mile, but were only 10-15 seconds out of the top 30. Each mile the Chico men progressed through the field and by the fifth mile it became apparent that we were running inside the top 5 in the team scoring if we could finish things well. Up front Bauhs ran almost a duplicate effort as he had in 2007 while tracking down Rono for an exciting win. Having seen Scott for the final time at the 19 minute mark on Saturday (running 7-8 seconds behind Rono) I made a quick dash to gain a good spot about 200m from the finish tape. Just as last year I had almost expected to see Rono first, then Bauhs chasing, but again it the familiar and powerful stride of the Chico senior charging up the final rise toward the finish. Rono followed but safely out of reach of the storming Bauhs who would go on to record his third top-2 finish at the Stanford event. Following Bauhs through the tape were a stream of former High School All Americans and Foot Locker Finalists. Chico's sophomore Brendan Scanlon would just miss Cal's Kari Karlsson (20th at Pac 10's last year/29:30's 10k, 14:08-5k) at the line with his 17th place finish. Not far behind was teammate Angel Marquez who admittedly thought he had another small loop remaining before the finish stretch and probably could have finished a bit higher in the field. Jordan Fairley (37th) and Manny Mejia (47th) rounded out the scoring for the Chico crew today. After the scores had been sorted out the Wildcats learned that they had indeed finished 4th overall behind Stanford (39), CAL (87) and Arkansas (103). With the fourth place finish the Chico men continued their streak of wins against former CCAA foe UC Davis that dates back to the 2002 CCAA championship event (Davis' last year in DII). The Cats also defeated a good portion of the Big West Conference (UCSB, Davis, Irvine, Long Beach St. and Fullerton). All in all a very solid day for the Chico State men, and of course a wonderful debut for Scott Bauhs who began his 2008 season with a dramatic come from behind win over a solid opponent.

Women's 6,000m: As mentioned earlier, today's effort for the Lady-Cats was an impressive one. Perhaps the most impressive was the way the Chico women scored such a high team placing was in their approach to the race itself. Much like the guys had earlier the women used a conservative start and strong finish to claim the scalps of some good programs. Knowing the field would likely go out at an unreasonable pace from the start the women put themselves out at an honest pace, but were still far behind the leaders ahead. If the race were scored at the Kilometer mark I'm confident that we'd have finished outside of the Top-20 overall. Thankfully there were 5 kilometers yet to run and the Chico women did run this stretch at a good even clip. The result was an inside-out effort that saw many of the top Chico women who'd started near the back, move up eventually into the top 1/4 of the field. Given the hot conditions present, this tactic proved to be vital as some teams' chances of success were dashed by suicidal first miles of their top runners. Leading the way for the 'Cats from the gun was Tori Tyler. The junior transfer from the University of Washington shook the rough outing from San Diego, and carved out an impressive even paced effort on Saturday that resulted in a much needed Top-30 finish. Following with a fine performance of her own was Shannon McVannel who spent much of the race working with teammate Kara Lubieniecki before finishing 39th overall. Lubieniecki followed closely just inside the top-50 and RS Frosh Alia Gray looked solid with her 50th place finish. With four inside the Top-50 in a Very deep Stanford field, the 'Cats were looking good in the team race. The familiar sight of RS Frosh Hannah Dillard was a relief as she and teammate Colleen Joyce closed strongly over the final mile to finish 73rd and 78th overall. With an ever improving Stephanie Consiglio finishing just behind Dillard and Joyce, the 'Cats had seven across the line before all but two teams in the field! This was an excellent run for Chico women! As mentioned earlier the Chico women turned the tables on several strong programs that finished ahead of them in San Diego two weeks before. Check out the differences in scores from SD to Stanford below: Women's Notes: Much like in the men's race, the Chico women have a lot to be proud of as they look at the results. A good portion of the top programs in the Big West finished behind the 'Cats including UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly SLO, and Long Beach State. After freshman years filled with random injuries and setbacks Hannah Dilard and Stephanie Consiglio appear to be rounding into shape quite well. 2007 All American Kayla Silva is still struggling after the summer bicycle accident cost her much of her pre season running. If and when Silva returns to form, and with the continued improvements of her teammates the Chico women appear to have a lot to look forward to this season.

Brendan Scanlon running beside Stanford's redshirting frosh Kevin Havel (7th at Foot Locker Nationals/8:59-2 mile PR)

Recent transfer Tori Tyler enjoys her best outing as a Wildcat!

Next Up: The 'Cats will hit the road this Thursday heading North to Oregon for the Willamette Invitational. It's the first time in several years that the 'Cats have been able to attend the meet in Salem, OR. Look for quick times and top places on the 8 and 5k courses this Saturday!

Shannon McVannel and Kara Lubieniecki running side by side at mid race

Chico HS grad Hannah Dillard hill climbing with teammate Colleen Joyce just behind